The present invention relates to a buckle, especially to a quick release buckle used in diving equipment or others.
A conventional buckle generally includes a male tongue and a female buckle. The male tongue snaps into or separated from the female buckle. The male tongue is formed by a tongue body and a pair of flexible legs arranged at two sides of the tongue body respectively. An operation part and a locking part are disposed on a front end of each leg. The female buckle consists of a buckle body and an insertion hole formed on the buckle body to be inserted by the male tongue. The insertion hole is arranged with a leaning part, a locked part, and lateral openings. The leaning part is against by the legs of the male tongue so as to make the legs move elastically while the locked part is locked with the locking part of the leg. The operation part of the leg is exposed out of the lateral opening. While the male tongue being disassembled from the female buckle, first the operation part of the leg exposed out of the lateral opening of the insertion hole is pressed inward to be moved inward and elastically. Thus the locking part of the male tongue is separated from the locked part of the insertion hole. Then the male tongue is pulled out of the female buckle. The main shortcoming of the conventional buckle is in that the separation of the male tongue from the female buckle needs two steps. First the exposed leg is pressed inward so as to make the locking part of the male tongue and the locked part of the female buckle separate from each other. Then the male tongue is pulled out.
Refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,472, U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,694 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,279, the shortcoming of the buckle revealed in these patents is that the separation of a male part from a female part takes two steps. An operation part of each of two elastic arms of the male part is pressed inward so that a locking part of the male part is separated from a locked part of the female part. Then the male part is pulled out of an insertion hole of the female part.
Refer to U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,480, a buoyancy compensator weight system is revealed. The shortcoming thereof is that there are two steps for disconnection of connector portions. Firstly resilient prongs of two elastic arms of a male part are squeezed inwardly. Then connector portions are disconnected from each other. However, connector portions are easily disconnected while being pinched or squeezed and users are in danger.
Refer to U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,147, “Torso-conforming releasable divers weight pouch” is provided for rapid release of diving weights. Weight pouch is secured to a buoyancy compensator vest by VELCRO. The disadvantage of such design is in that VELCRO® brand hook is easy to get broken after long time use. And the surface of the VELCRO® brand hook may be attached with some debris so that the adhesion performance is reduced. Thus weight pouch is easy to slip off and the user is in danger while diving.
Refer to U.S. Pat. No. 6,487,761, a quick release buckle for divers is revealed. The quick release buckle includes a female buckle member, a male buckle member, and an elongated pull element. The female buckle member has an end opening and lateral openings while the male buckle member has deformable spring arms with at least one protuberance. The elongated pull element is connected to the spring arms of the male buckle member. Engagement of the male and female buckle members is effected by the spring arms of the male buckle member extending laterally outwardly through lateral openings in the female buckle member after the spring arms are inserted through the end opening in the female buckle member. Disengagement of the male buckle member from the female buckle member is effected by pulling the elongated pull element outwardly to deform the spring arms and urge the protuberance of the male buckle member inwardly. Thus the protuberance is released from the lateral opening of the female buckle member. However, the spring arms of the male buckle member are quite easy to be affected by a pulling force and objects connected thereof. While being affected by the pulling force and/or objects connected, the spring arms of the male buckle member are easy to deform inward. Thus the male and female buckle members are easy to disengaged from each other.
Refer to U.S. Pat. No. 7,073,234, a quick-release buckle designed for use in underwater operations as a buckle on swimming and diving gear is revealed. The quick-release buckle includes a male buckle and a female buckle. The male buckle and the female buckle are connected to each other by an abruptly rising wall of a tongue of the male buckle received in an aperture of the female buckle. But the quick-release buckle is easy to be affected by a pulling force and/or objects connected thereof. The tongue of the male buckle is easily moved inwards so that the male buckle and the female buckle are disassembled. In order to solve the above problem, the abruptly rising wall of the tongue is produced more exposed for being locked with the aperture more tightly. Thus the joint strength of the male buckle and female buckle is improved. However, users need to apply more force while assembling or disassembling the male buckle and the female buckle. This is inconvenient to operate in some emergency conditions.